Richard Lippincott (1613-1683)

I never imagined that I might have ancestors who came to America before the Revolution. 

I never imagined it because my parents and grandparents were all Catholic, and very few Catholics (especially German and Irish ones) made it to America before the 19th century.

But I forgot one thing.  My paternal grandmother, Kathryn Marguerite Shaw,  converted to Catholicism after marrying my grandfather, Keech Brennan, and none of her ancestors were Catholic. 

I'm putting together her family history, and I'm discovering ancestors of many different Christian denominations: Puritan; German reformed; Quaker; Baptist and more.  Many of these ancestors were quite religious, and others were religious as well as rebellious, moving away from one denomination as they were disillusioned by it, and joining another. 

For example, my 9th great grandfather, an English aristocrat by the name of Richard Lippincott, born in 1613 in England, came to the colony of Plymouth in about 1640 and joined the Puritan Church.  He married, had several children and moved to Boston.  (Richard moved around a great deal which tells me he must have had considerable wealth.) His children, like other children of the time, had interesting names including: Remembrance, Freedom, Restore, Increase and Preserved. 

While in Boston, Richard got into trouble with the church, believing they were too militant, and disagreeing with some of their dogma, and was excommunicated.  Eventually, he decided the atmosphere was too hostile for him in Boston and he returned to England.  There he met George Fox, the Founder of the Society of Friends, and became a Quaker.  He was imprisoned in England for his beliefs, and eventually decided to try the New World again, this time in Rhode Island, where Roger Williams had established a religiously tolerant colony.  Eventually, he helped to establish a settlement in what is now New Jersey and helped finance the building of  the Quaker Meeting House in Shrewsbury.

According to the histories of the time, in 1672 George Fox came to visit Shrewsbury and stayed with Richard and his family.

While this story is mostly uplifting, in that Richard was a man of principle who followed his conscience, there is one part of his biography that is troubling.  Richard owned a number of African slaves, having purchased them from the Dutch, who were engaged in a lucrative slave trade at that time.  However, upon Richard's death, his wife, Abigail, freed all of them. 

I am descended from Richard's son, Remembrance, who became a prominent Quaker in his own right.  After many generations of male ancestors, my 2nd great grandmother, Rebecca Lippincott, was born in Ohio to Morgan Lippincott and Mary Elizabeth Warner.  Rebecca was the mother of my great grandmother, Emma, who married Clifford Shaw.  Emma was the mother of my grandmother, Kathryn Shaw Brennan.